How do you carry all of your gear!?

Sport hunters may have balked at eating nothing but instant oats, sunflower seeds and tvp “stew” and sleeping in bivy sacks but it’s been done

I mean we may also have had some chocolate covered espresso beans on us, I have mostly blocked that trip out as a coping mechanism
 
Ardent said:
It works, that’s two pouches of mountain house, a mr noodles, and a bar / chocolate. Goat meat, blueberries are the weight and come from the local pantry. Cheaper not sure, as it was downright cheap wholesale by the pallet, I don’t think I could find a cheaper and more convenient way to feed people in remote hunts than bulk mountain house.

Space cheese become popular at the end (moon cheese). Certainly weight was lost, and made up for by the guides between groups. A base cache for resupply was the preferred method, but didn’t work as well on new ground hunts as the path and return wasn’t nailed down yet. It was easier to keep it light than bog down with weight. Goat hunting definitely isn’t a sport well regarded for the cuisine.
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That's ~1500 calories. You're also moving the goal posts on cost, that's $30 for the guy buying at retail. $30 to be hungry. And the Mountain House meals are basically glorified Lipton Side Dishes, that would've been cheaper still to buy by the pallet.

It's not complicated anything from the grocery store that has 4-5 calories per gram is comparable to Mountain House stuff. And the same weight and same 1500 calories can be had at the grocery store for $3-5 dollars.
 
This reminds me of some of the discussion on the wilderness canoe forum I frequent. Lots of guys there into doing bush canoing where they keep the weight down, go ultra-light, and eat miserably for two weeks.

If that's what you love, then have at 'er, I say. To each his own.

I remember going on trips like that when I was young. It was like a badge of honour to have survived on less than the next guy.

Now days I simply don't value that any more.

I value comfort and luxury.

When I go canoing, I pack it all! We grill steaks, we drink bottled wine, we have everything we could want.

I don't care if we look like the clampetts when we're packing it all in - let the young guys snicker as they breeze by in their ultra-lights, I will be the one relaxing in comfort that evening!
 
MiG25 said:
That's ~1500 calories. You're also moving the goal posts on cost, that's $30 for the guy buying at retail. $30 to be hungry. And the Mountain House meals are basically glorified Lipton Side Dishes, that would've been cheaper still to buy by the pallet.

It's not complicated anything from the grocery store that has 4-5 calories per gram is comparable to Mountain House stuff. And the same weight and same 1500 calories can be had at the grocery store for $3-5 dollars.
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It was complicated our end, and much easier to buy pallets of mountain house, of which I still have an enormous amount as it keeps utterly forever. My head guide had a company card, and things got out of hand everytime I sent him to town and the store. Weight, and cost wise.

I’ve got totes full of expired bars, jerky, trail mix, and noodles unfortunately too. If anyone’s on the west coast and baits in Alberta or something let me know you can have it. We also bought lots of mountain air, and peak refuel to change it up. When purchasing $5000 at a time the price got down to $5-7 a pouch, and for the simplicity, packaging it was the way to roll. Survived the rain, light as possible for the plane, and the backpack’s had enough room for the goats.

Fine dining, or enough in the comfort sense, typically it was not. Definitely enough to get through the hunt however.
 
As boreal forest hunter who’s never mountain hunted, I have nothing but respect for the guys who go out and rough it for 10days or more at a time with nothing more than what’s on your back.

For day hunting I’ll say every damn time I leave my Bino harness behind, I regret it. Would like to modify it to hold more gear. Couple shoulder pockets for range finder, call. D ring out of place somewhere for gps.

Fanny pack hand warmer combo is a must have imo and I’ve never needed more storage for a day hunt. Depending on temp outside, I’lll put the fanny strap in my hot seat loop and put the hot seat on my ass as I walk and it balances out the weight of the fanny a little. Then when I find a nice rock outlook to sit on for a few hours and it’s -20 I’ve got a warm ass to be comfortable.
 
^ look up two way radio chest harnesses like those used by wildland fire fighters. They make them with big interior pockets for tablets that would fit your binos, plus hooks and pouches for gps etc.

How are day hunters packing animals out without a backpack? Going out from your truck or quad and recovering later?

I looked at my stash of freeze dried food last night; a few brands I found tasted better than mountain house: west coast kitchen (made in Canada I think, expensive) and mountain aire (I think this is also pretty pricey?). I have a bunch of "readywise" so it must be cheap.

I remember going on trips like that when I was young. It was like a badge of honour to have survived on less than the next guy.
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Ain't this the truth. I'm done pretending to be Grant Hadwin and sleeping under a tarp and eating sunflower seeds. Caffeine and water purification tablets on hand.

Gross, I'd rather have some salami and warm bannock and sleep in a nice tent.
 
conor_90 said:
How are day hunters packing animals out without a backpack? Going out from your truck or quad and recovering later?
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Usually how it's done if on familiar territory/private land, and if they allow for mechanical extraction.
This also determines the pack size, and contents. Next is the weather.
Always try to take the least, have the most, and want for nothing!

R.
 
Bannock/Frybread is just bulk and fat, so in other words perfect.

Day tripping in the mountains hunt the upside of the road. If there's a bit of snow it is just like dragging a toboggan down a hill. I carry some nylon webbing as it is much more pleasant to use than rope. I even drug a Bull Elk most of the way down a mountain myself, get it moving, then get out of the way, then when the grade gentled out, quarter it and pack it the rest of the way. Sometimes this is a little sketchy, you need to know where the cliffs/bluffs are.

Away from that, a guy should know how to bone out an animal, other than the horns there is no legal obligation to bring out any bones; just the horns, tail and nutsack but of course read the regs, some species require a larger portion of the skull or tooth. There's really not that much meat on a deer.
 
Ardent said:
Ha to be sure we caught a tangent, that is something I’ve never done. Nothing works on a day trip in the mountains hunting wise, your handle indicates familiarity there though.
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Always interested in others' experience, especially those with mileage ;)

Sorry to hear you're laid up, by the way. But we're all very grateful to have you more available here to answer our questions!
 
Usually how it's done if on familiar territory/private land, and if they allow for mechanical extraction.
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10/4

Never hunted private land besides a couple times on friends farms with not much but a rifle knife and water bottle

For day hunts in the foothills/mountains I would bring my backpack and debone/ quarter, hunting from the truck at the base of deactivated roads etc
 
conor_90 said:
^ look up two way radio chest harnesses like those used by wildland fire fighters. They make them with big interior pockets for tablets that would fit your binos, plus hooks and pouches for gps etc.

How are day hunters packing animals out without a backpack? Going out from your truck or quad and recovering later?

I looked at my stash of freeze dried food last night; a few brands I found tasted better than mountain house: west coast kitchen (made in Canada I think, expensive) and mountain aire (I think this is also pretty pricey?). I have a bunch of "readywise" so it must be cheap.



Ain't this the truth. I'm done pretending to be Grant Hadwin and sleeping under a tarp and eating sunflower seeds. Caffeine and water purification tablets on hand.

Gross, I'd rather have some salami and warm bannock and sleep in a nice tent.
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I will check those out, thanks.

Sometimes, like moose. It’s usually easier to make a trail to the moose for an atv to take it out whole. I keep a two child sled in truck for dragging deer out whole, much easier while group hunting and it’s an easy place to meet up, and I usually want to dump all gear and rifle anyway. Solo spring bear, the bush is so quiet where I hunt and only 30min utv drive from home, I stay close to logging trails and will gut the bear as fast as possible, drag to trail, load in utv and get it home and broken down asap to get in fridge, usually within 2hours of shot.
 
DOUGLAS D said:
Lots and lots!
ACME backpack.ACME ammo.ACME freeze dried coyote bait etc etc etc
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Lol, no kidding! :)

Started out as a discussion of what to carry and how to carry it when stepping out for a few hours of coyote hunting...50 posts later and we are comparing the relative merits of grease-soaked sawdust vs. freeze-dried foods for surviving two weeks on a mountaintop...
 
conor_90 said:
10/4

Never hunted private land besides a couple times on friends farms with not much but a rifle knife and water bottle

For day hunts in the foothills/mountains I would bring my backpack and debone/ quarter, hunting from the truck at the base of deactivated roads etc
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Never did the private land thing either until it was location dependent. Public to private ratio, as you know, is flipped, depending on which side of the rocks you're on. The West side is always proffered, but not always populated... : (
Packs and gear are variables, and change day to day, unfortunately. One day it's the knife and the water, and the next it's the frame pack. This happens all on the same property as well. And yes to dragging... those crazy carpet things are awesome. Build one. They are worth the weight, work very well, even with little to no snow, and are way easier then packing if the terrain permits.

R.
 
I used to roll around with my ice fishing toboggan in the back of my truck while day hunting bears, but I always ended up grabbing them under the armpits and dragging them out or bucking them up
 
For coyote hunting I take along a backpack that has my caller/decoy, extra shells, latex gloves, hanging rope, maybe a bottle of water, extra batteries, range finder, a box cutter knife and some tape (just incase I cut myself)....
It doesn't seem like it weights a lot but after a 20 minute walk through the snow, it weights a ton... that is my setup... Keeping in mind, I usually hunt between 100yds to 1,000 yds of my truck ... So not really that far from the truck.

Edit, I also need to carry my savage axis .223 with scope and sock gun case...plus my shooting sticks and a stadium seat that hooks up to my backpack, it can get feeling heavy quick
 
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